Total War: Warhammer II, The Twisted & The Twilight Review
Wood Elves are here, and with them, come all new units and legendary lords–but how does it play? Join as as we take a look at the Twisted and the Twilight.
This week sees the release of the Twisted & The Twilight, the latest expansion for Creative Assembly’s Epic Total War: Warhammer II. This release builds on over 4 years of releases and expansions since Total War: Warhammer came out, all adding up into one mega game and is by far the best realization of the Warhammer Fantasy World outside of the tabletop. With two new legendary lords, each with their own campaigns and a host of new units added to the game, there’s a ton to dig through for even the most seasoned general. I’ve had a chance to play it–here’s how it plays.
Disclaimer: While this is article is not a paid promotion I did receive a free review copy to play for it. In addition the build we were given was a late beta build and there may be slight differences in the finial release version.
The Twilight
The first of the two new Legendary Lords is actually a two for one. The sisters Naestra and Arahan lead a new Wood Elf faction. They can be played in either the Vortex Campaign or the Mortal Empire’s mode. In the Vortex Campaign, as is usual, they have a more focused story driven goal. They are also the first Wood Elves to be included in the Vortex Campaign. Along with the sisters, come a fair number of new units, per CA:
Units:
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Ariel: The Queen of Athel Loren is recruitable as a Legendary Hero. She is a powerful spellcaster who is more than capable in melee combat too
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Spellweaver: Spellcaster Lord who can be recruited to wield the Lores of Life/Beasts/Shadow/Dark/High magic
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Zoats: Powerful Monstrous Beasts who have access to bound Lore of Life spells
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Great Stag Knights: heavy Wood Elf cavalry used to penetrate infantry lines and decimate lighter cavalry
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Bladesingers: Elite, sword-wielding WardancersRegiments of Renown:
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Wraiths of the Frozen Heart: Particularly effective for preventing cavalry from cycle charging, or stopping a missile unit from retreating.
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Lost Sylvan Knights: Equipped with significant physical resistance.
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Enigmas of Ghyran: Elite Zoats with more powerful spells from the Lore of Life.
Naestra and Arahan are a powerful lord choice with amazing ranged power. They start off riding a flying mount, giving them a lot of mobility, and can later upgrade to their dragon, which allows them to really get stuck in. Elves on dragons has been a fine tradition since the early days of Warhammer Fantasy:
They had a slight upgrade in looks.
Their story revolves around a potential Chaos portal opening up in the woods of northern Naggaroth. Ariel, their powerful demi-goddess queen has sent the sister their to help prevent this from happening. They have to first heal the local forests and pave the way for the arrival of Ariel herself, then preform a ritual to stop the portal. It’s fairly standard Total Warwarhammer stuff, but provides a fun narrative for your battles.
In addition they have access to the Forge of Daith. This options mechanic gives them powerful magic items throughout the game for free. In addition every couple of turns the sisters can visit Daith and get either a minor permanent buff to an item or a short term major buff to an item. I really liked this mechanic, it transforms the game and makes their play style a little more like an RPG as you are constantly upgrading gear for them. It also lets you customize your characters to match whatever your style is.
Overall the Twilight portion of the release is fun, without being particularly new. The sisters are a fun faction to play with lots of fast/flying and shooting units, but even with the new stuff it still feels pretty much like playing Wood Elves with the main attraction here getting to use them in the Vortex Campaign.
The Twisted
The other half of the expansion is where it really kicks into high gear. First, though, the basics. The star of this show is the new Skaven Legendary Lord Throt the Unclean. As is normal he can be used in both the Vortex and Mortal Empires Campaign. Along with some new mechanics there are also a host of new Skaven units, per CA there are:
Units:
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Ghoritch: A former general of Archaon the Everchosen, once ignored his commander’s orders and was sent to Hell Pit as punishment. There Throt transplanted his brain into the body of a Rat Ogre, creating an aberration of incredible speed, strength and intelligence. Ghoritch is recruitable as a Legendary Hero.
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Packmaster: This Hero unit performs a support role with AoE and targeted buffs, summons Wolf Rats to the thick of battle, and may be mounted on a Brood Horror
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Wolf Rats: Highly mobile pack-beasts which come in poisonous and armour-piercing varieties
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Mutant Rat Ogre: a large single-entity monster adept at brawling.
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Brood Horror: A huge, fast-moving monster adept at punching through infantry lines. Can also be chosen as a mount for Throt the Unclean and Packmaster Heroes.
Regiments of Renown:
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Pit Fighters of Hell’s Deep: Comes with the Beserk ability and can be used to effectively combat terror units.
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Morskittar’s Hellion: Capable of summoning a localized bombardment of warp lightning.
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The Thing Thing: Has the ability to buff melee attack and weapon strength but rampages self in process.
Thort is also a strong lord, but in my playing he’s more of a buffer supporting lord that a straight up combat beast, though he can do in a pinch.
But what really makes him shine is his story. It is nothing short of peak Skaven amazingness. Basically Throt is always hungry and when he hears, from mysterious sources, that Ariel is coming to Naggaorth to close the Chaos portal he decides that eating her should finally fill him up, and also probably make him really powerful. That’s really his only goal in the game, win a final battle against Ariel and eat her. It leads to a hyper focused game for him which is pretty different from playing normal Skaven. He starts with a 50 turn timer till the final battle and capturing up to six objectives can delay the battle and leave Ariel weakened in the final confrontation. Once he’s captured 3 he can call the battle at any point. In theory this might make Throt’s campaign one of the fastest in the game as you could win the final battle on turn 50. Its a more localized campaign, but that lets his mechanics shine.
On top of that he has access to the Flesh Laboratory which is a major new mechanic and really changes up his whole play style. This laboratory lets him spend Growth Juice to get free units, which on its own is great. However using Growth Juice also gives you mutagens which he can use to mutate his units giving them different buffs with a massive list to pick from. Again, you can really pick your playstyle here, as there’s a buff for just about everything. However, once you add too many buffs, a unit can become unstable, and will need to be recycled into to more Growth Juice and mutagens. It’s a pretty deep system that keeps you always active and gives you a lot of customization. Turn to turn you have decisions that can change your campaign. It really makes you feel like you’re in command of unique and new faction. The expansion is worth it for this alone.
Final Verdict: 4.5/5 Vats of Growth Juice
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Yes-yes, you must acquire-get this expansion
